


your skeleton will carry

by theformerone



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anti Sandaime, Dark, Emotional Manipulation, Heavy Angst, M/M, Sterilization, Traumatized Child Soldiers Make Bad Decisions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-26 16:02:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13861182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: He doesn't want to have children for the clan that murdered his father, or for the village that let it happen.Neji and Sasuke discover that they are more alike than they think.





	your skeleton will carry

**Author's Note:**

> title lifted from Knuckle Puck’s ‘Your Back Porch’

Neji decides when the Caged Bird Seal is seared onto his forehead that he never wants his own children to suffer such shame.

* * *

He goes through the rest of his life filled with a kind of burning rage that threatens to sear him from the inside out. He knows exactly why his father was sentenced to die; why he was beheaded like a fucking  _fish_ to appease a government that already wanted any excuse to war with Konoha anyway. A government that tried to _kidnap_ his baby cousin. A government that just wanted an excuse to further weaken Konoha's forces. 

He knows that the Sandaime Hokage let it happen. He knows that the Elder's Council probably had a say in the decision as well. He knows that every single person in power, whose job it is to protect the best interests of their village, is responsible for his father's death. 

He knows that if it were ever between him and Hinata, that the council, the Sandaime, and his clan, would make the same decision every time. 

Neji decides when he is nine years old and ravenous, his hunger only sated by his rage, that he will do the village one better. He will suffer their simpering gazes, their proud gazes, the way they call him a genius. But he will not bear children for this village.

He will never father a child only for them to have the Caged Bird Seal placed onto their forehead, searing into their neural pathways, and obliterating half the strength of their Byakugan. He will never have children that the Hokage and his council will gladly sacrifice to appease bloodthirsty Kumo shinobi. 

It is the only form of protest he has. Even at ten, he knows that shinobi like him, who prefer men, and kunoichi who prefer women; there are ways that they can still have children for the sake of the village. Surrogacy and in vitro fertilization, and the like. But Neji doesn't want to be any part of that. He does not want to have children by natural or alternative means. He does not want them at all. 

When he is promoted to genin and is allowed to start taking missions, allowed to start having and saving his own money, he creates a false drawer on his desk in his bedroom. Inside is an envelope that slowly fills with cash for a procedure that will be illegal only because he is a Hyūga and only because he has immeasurable skill. Neji doesn't care. 

He doesn't want to have children for the clan that murdered his father, or for the village that let it happen. 

* * *

He meets Uchiha Sasuke at the Chuunin Exams. 

He recognizes the boy as an Uchiha, as an inheritor of the mutated Byakugan, now known as the Sharingan. He thinks to say something, but be recognizes the mean slump of Sasuke's shoulders, and the hard look in his eyes. 

Neji thinks of the Massacre. Thinks of the way Uchiha Itachi obliterated a clan inside of the village. How it didn't make sense, not really, for a village like Konoha with such tight security (implemented after Hinata's near capture), with constant ANBU rotations around the village perimeter, for a clan primarily made up of the police force, to suddenly be exterminated without pause by only one person. 

Neji sees Sasuke and recognizes rage. Recognizes hurt and confusion, and a bone deep sense of distrust in the system they are being groomed to uphold. 

He watches Sasuke through that written exam, and he knows Sasuke knows he sees him. After the written exam, between walking to the Forest of Death, Neji extracts himself from Tenten's side, and lets himself get caught in the flow of foot traffic. 

The Uchiha sidles up beside him, hands stuffed in his pockets, looking cross. 

"What do you want?" the Uchiha asks, voice hard and mean and full of malice.

Neji keeps walking, keeps his eyes forward. 

"Your eyes," Neji replies, "they're like mine."

Sasuke stiffens at that. He sidesteps Neji and Neji lets him, lets the Uchiha shove him into the nearest wall, one hand fisted in his shirt. Neji tucks his hands into his pockets. 

"Not like that," Neji says, speaking under his own voice. "Your sensei is the only person with a Sharingan eye in this village."

Sasuke loosens his grip on him, but his eyes are still narrowed. 

"You look at the world like someone the world hasn't treated well."

Sasuke scoffs and abruptly drops his hold on Neji's shirt. 

"I'm not looking for friends, Hyūga."

Neji reaches up and brushes at the bunched up fabric until it is smooth. 

"No, I don't think you are," Neji muses. "But you look like you need allies."

Sasuke stuffs his hands in his pockets and turns to walk away.

"You mean you haven't thought about how the village let your brother exterminate your clan?"

Sasuke is back on him in a heartbeat, raising one hand to slam into his face. Neji's Byakugan flares to life, and he catches Sasuke's fist easily, closing his fingers around the punch aimed for his nose. 

"What did you say?"

Neji tries not to laugh, he really does. 

"You think the village couldn't have stopped Uchiha Itachi if they wanted to?" he asks. "You think the Massacre happened because your brother was just that good?"

From the way Sasuke is staring at him, damn near shaking with rage, it's clear that he hasn't. 

"You're a shinobi, cousin," Neji mutters. "Look underneath the underneath. We live in one of the strongest villages in the elemental nations. If the Sandaime wanted the Uchiha clan alive, they'd be alive."

Neji pushes back at Sasuke's fist, and Sasuke immediately rears back. He takes a couple of steps away from Neji, and gives him an appraising glance. 

"The Sandaime let my father be murdered in my uncle's place," Neji says. "And he allows the main family to torture the branch."

He deactivates his Byakugan and puts his hands back into his pockets. 

"When I say we have the same eyes, I mean we've both seen what this village is capable of."

Neji steps off of the wall and walks forward. Sasuke doesn't give an inch, so Neji moves easily around him. He moves down the hallway, flashing his Byakugan once more to get an idea of where Tenten's chakra signature is. Once he knows, he sets his course to find her physically. 

"If you want an ally, Uchiha," Neji says, throwing the words over his shoulder, "I'm not too hard to find."

* * *

Maybe it's manipulative. Maybe he's wrong to do it. But Neji needs allies himself, and who better to keep by his side than the last Uchiha?

* * *

He sees him, his distant cousin, so distantly related that there's probably not a drop of blood between the two of them that's the same. His kunoichi teammate is protecting him, and Lee's just gotten the shit kicked out of him. Neji is ready to intervene for his teammate, but Sasuke - Sasuke seems to take control of the situation. 

It's worrisome, those black marks on his skin. Neji wonders if he's just made an ally he won't be able to keep.

* * *

The rest of the exams go down easy. He knows his victory is making him more appealing to the Uchiha, and why would't it? If Sasuke wants a chance at killing his brother, at tackling the system that ensured he was allowed to murder his clan, he's going to need someone with a name like the Hyūga to back them up. Besides, kicking the ever loving shit out of Hinata had been cathartic to say the least. And it had been a good performance. 

Strategically, it makes perfect sense. 

Between the preliminary and final fights, Sasuke approaches him. He's about to leave for his training mission with his sensei; he'll be gone in two days time. He approaches the Hyūga compound of all the places, and a distant cousin politely brings Sasuke to the branch house that Neji lives in by himself. 

"You came to my house," Neji says dryly. 

Sasuke huffs, turning his nose up. 

"You said you weren't hard to find," he replies. "And I found you."

"So you did."

Neji pours them both glasses of water because he knows how to be polite. He makes sure Sasuke can see him do it, and he opens a pack of salty senbei as well. He sets everything down at the low table where he left Sasuke, and he sits not too long after. 

"What do you know about the Uchiha Massacre?"

Neji takes one of the rice crackers and bites into its edge. He gestures at the packet, and Sasuke narrows his eyes. Despite his bad attitude, he was still raised as a scion of one of the oldest, most important villages in Konohagakure. He knows better than to deny refreshment when offered. 

Instead of eating a cracker, he chugs half his water, then slams the glass back on the table. 

"What do you know about the Massacre?" he presses. 

Neji finishes his cracker, then takes a sip of his own water. 

"Not much, I will admit," he says evenly. "But I know enough about the village to know that it should've been impossible."

Sasuke's hands are balled up into fists. He roots them firmly on his knees to keep himself from lashing out in a stranger's home. It's a little reassuring; at least the last Uchiha still has his manners. 

"Impossible?" Sasuke asks. "That man -,"

"Was a genius, yes, I know," Neji says, lightly waving his hand. "So was my father, and look what happened to him."

"What does your father have to do with this?" Sasuke asks, scowling. 

Neji can't help the dip in his brows. It was only recent history, and Sasuke was only a year behind him in the academy. He supposed most young children wouldn't have a reason to know; it didn't really effect anyone other than Hinata and Neji. 

"When Kumo and Konoha were at war, a treaty was brokered. It was supposed to be signed on Hinata-sama's birthday. While he was in the village to sign the treaty, the head of Kumogakure tried to kidnap Hinata-sama. My uncle, Hiashi-sama killed him for it."

"And?" the Uchiha replies. 

Neji breathes in slowly through his nose and tries not to get annoyed with Sasuke. He's looking for an ally here, and it's not Sasuke's fault no one thought it was pertinent information to share with the youth of Konoha. Nevermind that Sasuke himself probably would've been one of Kumo's targets had circumstances been slightly different. 

"Kumo denied accusations of the kidnapping despite Hinata-sama's testimony. They demanded my uncle's head as a blood price in return for their dead village leader. My father and his twin, Hyūga Hizashi was chosen to die in his place."

The Uchiha folds his arms across his chest, leaning away. 

"Sounds like your father's problem."

Neji doesn't grind his teeth. 

"Why was it possible for a foreign leader to kidnap the firstborn child to a clan heir of this village?"

It's not a question Sasuke can answer. Konoha housed doujutsu since its founding. There was no way their village could not have known about the cost that came with protecting those precious eyes. 

"The kidnapping of Hinata-sama could have been prevented, and so could my father's death," he says. "So could the Uchiha Massacre."

"But how - ?"

Neji feels himself lose his patience. 

"How many spies do you think could manage to get into Konoha during war time? Zero. That's how many. So how did one manage to slip through the cracks?" he asks, voice a low, angry whisper.

"Your family made up almost the entirety of the police force before it was decimated. You think none of them called for help? You think no one flared their chakra so the nearest ANBU rotation would come check on them? You think they all just rolled over and died?"

Before he knows it, he's on his back, Sasuke having vaulted over the low table. Neji knows that legally, he's more or less allowed to kill Sasuke for disrespecting the laws of hospitality. But there's something hot and angry in the pit of his stomach when he stares up into red Sharingan eyes, and something terribly dangerous about the black markings that begin to stretch over the Uchiha's skin. 

There's no finesse to the spar. The Uchiha is spitting with rage, and Neji uses it against him. Activates his Byakugan not even remotely worried about the consequences of showing a Sharingan his clan jutsu. He moves too quickly anyway, too quickly for Sasuke's mismatched tomoe Sharingan. He can see the power pulsing from the eyes, but it's all rage, all misdirected and sloppy because of it. 

Neji closes all the tenketsu on Sasuke's arms, jamming the pressure points extra hard to cause severe cramping.

"You know they called for help because no family is too proud to not want to die."

That stills him, and Neji knows he has struck a chord.

There's silence for some time. Sasuke breaks it. His voice is haggard and full of rage and grief, all brought into stark review with Neji's words. Neji remembers sounding like that. It's strange hearing it from another person. 

"Why?" Sasuke asks. 

Neji's own hands curl into fists, and he does his best not to shake with the words he forces from between his teeth. 

"Culls," he says. "Culls to keep the families in line. To keep them dependent on the village, on the Hokage."

His mouth is dry. He doesn't like saying it out loud, doesn't like believing it's true. But he forces himself to keep speaking. 

"Whenever there's an opportunity for an outside force to cause damage against a family that might be a threat to the village, the village turns a blind eye to keep the family in line."

"You saying that is treason."

Neji looks over at the Uchiha, who is sitting upright. His eyes are downcast, looking at his hands. 

"You believe me," Neji says after a beat. 

Sasuke doesn't make a move to show Neji that he heard him. 

"What do you want an ally for?" the Uchiha asks instead. 

Neji smiles a little bit, glad to get to the topic at hand. 

"I'm sterilizing myself when I have the money," he says. "I'm ending my father's line with me. I think you should do the same."

Sasuke's eyes flash up to him, and they're black now instead of red. They're - curious. Hesitant. Confused. 

"You only want to kill your brother, isn't that right?" he asks. "Why would you revive the Uchiha clan for the village that let them die out?"

Black eyes dart away from his. Neji walks to the low table and rights the glass; Sasuke had knocked it over, dripping water onto the hard wood floors when he attacked Neji. He goes into the kitchen to retrieve a white rag, then returns and begins cleaning up the mess. 

"I don't need an answer now," Neji says, voice deliberately light. "I won't make my move until I'm nearer to twenty and I start getting pressured to take a wife."

As Neji tidies up the room, Sasuke stands rather abruptly. He stalks halfway across the room, ignoring Neji in favor of the door. Then, he stops and stands, just breaths away from where his shoes lie at the front door.

"What do I get if I join you?" he asks.

Neji keeps his eyes on the rag, disguising the measure of tension in him. 

"If the last two of the great doujutsu in Konoha refuse to play their games, it'll force their hand," Neji says. "You could demand an inquest into the Massacre. Get a state sanctioned assassination mission. Get paid to kill the man who killed your family."

It's the right thing to say. But Neji already knows about the mark on Sasuke's neck, and the strange Oto shinobi, and their pale skinned jounin sensei. He's a shinobi, he's got to be observant or risk death. He knows that mark, has seen it in action with his Byakugan; there's foreign chakra in Sasuke's system, and it belongs to a shinobi so powerful he's called legendary. 

He doesn't know if he cares that Sasuke is only after power, that he will do anything to kill Uchiha Itachi. If staying in the village serves him, he will do that. If turning traitor helps him, he will do that instead. Neji knows he's offered the Uchiha a way to stay in, but by giving him his own hunches, Neji has also ensured that Sasuke has something on him. 

If he ever went to Hiashi with Neji's claims, if he ever went to the Sandaime - Neji would tell everyone about the curse seal on Sasuke's neck. And then Sasuke would be on such tight lockdown he probably wouldn't be able to leave the village by himself until he hit thirty. 

Mutually assured destruction is the better sort of destruction, isn't it?

* * *

They get little time to talk after that. The second round of the fighting happens, and Naruto beats him and his clan head bows his head and tells him the story of his father. How hard Hiashi fought to protect his brother's life. 

Neji weeps because it is the first time Hiashi has ever showed him any kindness. But there is still rage coiling and ready to pounce in his core. Hizashi's sacrifice was noble, but unnecessary. 

Neji has just enough time to decide the Sandaime is on his shit list when the whole world goes to hell. 

* * *

He sees Sasuke after the invasion, after the Sandaime is dead and buried. Neji wonders if the Elder's Council that advises the Hokage had anything to do with letting his father die, with letting the Hyūga torture their cousins. He wonders if the Elder's Council stopped aid from coming to the Uchiha as they died in the streets of their compound. 

A second time, Sasuke finds him once he's recovered. He returns from a fight with Naruto, one that nearly put Sasuke back in the hospital for using an assassination technique. Neji activates his Byakugan and looks over the chakra pathways of Sasuke's arm. 

"You need tighter control," he muses. "You'll blow out the tenketsu on your forearm if you don't."

Sasuke swipes an apple from the kitchen and bites meanly into its flesh. 

"Thanks for the advice," he replies. "I didn't ask for it."

Neji puts up his hands in acquiescence and lets the Uchiha eat his fruit. The branch and main families have been leaving him alone more lately, since the Sandaime's death. Everyone is busy mourning his loss, no one seems to wonder what Neji is up to, and why the Uchiha is visiting him. 

It suits Neji just fine. Sasuke finishes the apple and sits fully on the cushion beneath him. Idly, he removes a kunai from his holster and begins twirling its circular hilt around one of his fingers. 

"He can do it," Sasuke says, flipping the kunai in the air and catching it by its hilt. "Make it so we never have kids. Sterilize us."

Neji knows without it having to be said. The idea alone is to make his stomach ache with how much he wants it. He - He doesn't know if he's always wanted out of the village, but he's always known he doesn't want to play their games. The so-called 'nice village', that executed one of its own, whose tight security managed to allow a genocide within its walls. 

He had always assumed he would stay in Konoha. Make his intention not to marry something public, and die valiantly with the Hyūga shame heavy on his back. Without bearing children, Neji was denying the village his father's grandchildren and the power of a main family Byakugan in the branch family's house.

He had been rolling the thought over in his head, had planned it since his father died, had known in his heart of hearts that no matter what Hiashi said the Hyūga would never abolish the branch house or the Caged Bird Seal. But leaving the village had never been part of the equation. 

His mouth feels dry as he opens it. Sasuke isn't looking at him, he's too busy twirling his kunai in his hand. He spins it over his palm, then over and around his knuckles the way Tenten does when she's warming up before a spar. 

Sasuke will go without him. That much is clear. Neji is one of the few genin whose skill level is that of a chuunin and the Konoha Crush had thinned the hell out of their active duty shinobi; if Sasuke defects, Neji will undoubtedly be on the team that is sent to retrieve him. He can either go with Sasuke now, or he can follow him into the wild to retrieve him.

There were plenty of people in Konoha who would sterilize him. Neji may be a branch member, but he has a small fortune in his inheritance and in the money he's been saving from his own missions. He could pay a steady million ryo for the procedure, and even that was lowballing it. Buying the procedure and the person's silence would be expensive; there would likely be backlash if the new Hokage ever found out who had done it.

It would be better if he were on a mission outside of the village. That would be the easiest route. He just had to bide his time, and then he'd have exactly what he wanted. It was a lifetime's of saving mission funds and carefully counting the money in his inheritance. But one day, as soon as he was out of the village for long enough, maybe even with a squad that didn't know him that well -

"He can remove your seal."

The world stops. Sasuke tosses his kunai into the air and catches it by the hilt.

"If he could put one on me, he can take one off you."

Neji can hear his blood rushing through his veins. His head is beginning to throb. His forehead suddenly feels hot, right where the seal takes up the center of his forehead.

Logically, he knows that Orochimaru will offer anything to get Sasuke into his grasp. Absently, he wants to be flattered that he's even being used as a bargaining chip. It ought to fill his stomach with butterflies or excitement or affection to know that Sasuke wants him at his side when he goes into Oto. 

No one in Konoha would ever remove his Caged Bird Seal. No one outside of the village could even figure out how the seal was put on, much less how to remove it. But the fuinjutsu on Sasuke's throat was proof that Orochimaru could. 

Neji swallows hard, and does not look at Sasuke. Freedom is right out of his grasp. He can just barely see it in front of his fingers. He doubted he'd ever pledge his allegiance to Orochimaru, but he'd probably have to do something for the man in return for getting his seal removed. Sasuke had promised Orochimaru his body once Itachi was dead. Neji - Neji didn't want to promise the Sannin anything. 

"He'll want to do experiments on your eyes, to really see how far you can see," Sasuke says. "But he only wants me."

It's not a comforting thought. Sasuke huffs out an impatient sigh, and it makes Neji look to where the other genin has holstered his kunai. 

"Once I'm strong enough to kill that man, I'll be strong enough to get rid of Orochimaru, too," he explains, voice dry and hard like the insult Neji knows it is. 

Neji looks at Sasuke for a long hard moment. Sasuke sucks his teeth and cuts his gaze away from Neji. 

"I won't let him do anything to you."

Neji's stomach suddenly feels empty. People don't - No one's ever offered to look out for him. Or at least, no one has since his father died. He's been on his own, raised in silence by branch cousins. Their affection had always been somewhat distant; he was still Hizashi's son, and regardless of birth order, Hizashi was an heir to the main family. Neji's father had been the only person that ever cared about what he did, or where he was going; his mother had died on a mission when he was only a year old, and he doesn't remember much of her. 

So this affection (because that is what this is, even from Sasuke, who gives it in small, angry handfuls wrapped around insults and harsh words) blindsides him. Especially because it's an offer of protection. Neji has been the only person keeping himself safe ever since his father died. And now Sasuke is offering him a way out from underneath the village's thumb, a way out from his cursed seal, and protection from the one man who was as much a threat as he was a sanctuary. 

He can't stop himself from saying it because it's too good to be true, and he'll regret not thinking it over more later. But when the seal is gone and he's free, he'll barely care. 

"I'll come with you."

* * *

They bank on Neji being assigned to his retrieval mission when he leaves. 

Neji stays behind to fight Kidomaru, who gives him an up and down glance and then a vicious looking smirk. 

"So you're Sasuke's?" he asks. 

Neji narrows his eyes and gives his neck a light crack. 

"Put on a good show," he replies. 

Their spar is strangely cathartic. They don't fight all out, just enough to make it seem as though Neji was incapacitated and kidnapped. Orochimaru was known for his delight in collecting those who were powerful, and especially those with wonderful eyes. 

A genius Hyūga, whose strength surpassed the heir of the main family, would make an excellent addition to his collection.

* * *

He thinks, once they are already on the road, after Sasuke nearly kills Naruto but doesn't, that he is desecrating his father's memory by doing this. Then again, Konoha desecrated his father's life by allowing him to die. 

Orochimaru is offering Neji what no one else in the village would ever think to. Offering him the only thing that he wants in the world. It is terrible of him to go, to abandon his family. But he is young and angry and selfish. 

He thinks that if his father had been given the choice, between being bound in the village and leaving, he might have made a similar decision. It's a good thing he's dead, and that Neji will never find out. 

* * *

Oto isn’t really all that different from Konoha. Once Neji and Sasuke have passed their trial periods, they’ll be allowed to take missions for the pseudo village to bring in revenue.

Orochimaru is preoccupied with Sasuke, which leaves Kabuto as Neji’s primary handler. They make no secret of how little they care for each other; Neji sits through the tedious eye exams Kabuto gives him and answers a number of questions about the Byakugan that would probably land him in prison if he were still a Konoha shinobi.

Weeks, then months, then years pass and they aren’t often kept separated in Oto. Because they are so alike in skill, they often train together. They learn kenjutsu from Orochimaru, who is a master swordsman in his own right.

While Sasuke learns how to harness the power of his cursed seal, Neji watches Kabuto perform medical ninjutsu with his Byakugan activated. It doesn’t let him copy the jutsu, but Neji is a Hyūga and his chakra control is already damn near perfect from performing the Jūken.

Once he gets the hang of the way Kabuto’s chakra fluctuates while he works, the rest is as easy as finding scrolls he can teach himself from. There are plenty of garden snakes to practice ninjutsu on. The first time he brings one back to life, it bites him. 

Sasuke snorts, then takes the wounded arm and sucks the venom out of it. 

“That’s unsanitary,” Neji says, trying not to think about Sasuke’s mouth on his mouth, on his throat, on his cock. 

“So is getting bitten in the first place.”

The days pass differently after that, and the nights, too. Sparring with Sasuke becomes impossible as they get older, and stronger. Sasuke insists on wearing the ridiculous open necked shirt and slim black pants he is given, and they open up paths to toned flesh that Neji wants to drag his tongue over.

There are moments in spars when Neji gets his katana up to a blow at Sasuke’s chest, and he has to resist the urge to draw the blade further right than he must to expose one of Sasuke’s soft brown nipples. It’s an exercise in restraint. 

Neji dreams of red eyes between his knees, looking up from a cover of raven black eye lashes, hollow cheeks, and low wet heat.

He ignores Kabuto’s snide looks when Neji has to wash his sheets because aiming in your sleep is impossible. He puts the missing nin on his shit list too.

* * *

Orochimaru won't sterilize them until they're eighteen for 'health and safety reasons'. Neji sees the way Orochimaru eyes Sasuke without regard for those who see him watching, and knows better. 

Sasuke will only stay in Oto for as long as it serves him. Neji knows that once he's strong enough to kill Itachi, he'll start by killing Orochimaru. It is an unspoken thing between the two of them, that their time in Sound Country will be brief. Sasuke has a mission of his own and Neji… 

"You're just here for him, aren't you?" Kabuto asks with a light sneer. 

"And you're only here for Orochimaru," he returns. 

Kabuto pushes his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. 

"No," the white haired nukenin says, voice gone low. 

His glasses flash the low light and Neji narrows his eyes. He idly rests his hand on the hilt of his katana, the Tsurugi to Sasuke's Kusanagi. A cloud cutting sword, Orochimaru had called it upon gifting it to him. 'A nice complement to Sasuke-kun's,' Orochimaru said, 'I do think the two of you will be fighting often together, yes, Neji-kun?'

Neji thumbs the hilt, not needing his Byakugan to see the way Kabuto discreetly begins cycling his chakra, concentrating it towards his hands. Neji doesn't need to see it; he can feel it. Living underground in Oto had made him much better at feeling rather than seeing. He could rely quite easily on his ears and nose now; if he hadn't made a summoning contract with hawks, he might have made one with snakes as Sasuke had. 

"No?" he asks Kabuto. 

Kabuto smirks and tucks his hands into his pockets. It's the closest thing the man will ever get to an unarmed position. Neji knows that, but he leaves his hand on Tsurugi's hilt. 

"You're like me," Kabuto replies. "You're loyal to no one but yourself."

* * *

Maybe that's true. Maybe.

But after Orochimaru removes the Caged Bird Seal two years after they arrive in Oto, the first person Neji sees when he wakes up is Sasuke. He's tossing a kunai up into the air and catching it by its hilt. 

"You weren't waiting for me to wake up, were you?"

"Tch."

"How very romantic."

"Don't flatter yourself."

Sasuke stands, holstering the kunai. As he approaches, Neji carefully begins to sit up, rubbing at his temples. A hand, Sasuke's hand, suddenly grasps his chin and nudges him to look up into coal black eyes. 

"We have a mission."

"A mission?"

Sasuke nods once, his fingers still pressed into the skin of Neji's face. He tries not to react, tries to feel nothing, but he's seventeen and Sasuke is not affectionate. This touch is - peculiar. Different. It's almost a claim. 

"He trusts us."

The smirk that graces Sasuke's face is mean and elegant. It makes Neji want. 

"When do we leave?"

* * *

That Orochimaru trusts them enough to enforce his will tells Neji that soon, Orochimaru will move to take Sasuke's body. And if he is making like the snakes he emulates, he is sizing himself up against Sasuke's progress, to see if the last Uchiha is a meal he can swallow whole. 

It also means that Sasuke is getting closer every day to killing the Snake Sannin. 

All for the better, Neji thinks. He doesn't like the way Kabuto eyes him now that he's old enough to be looked at. Doesn't like the way other Oto shinobi seem to think they can get close to him without his permission. 

There's only one person he really thinks about in that way, and he isn't even sure of the black haired object of his affection will reciprocate his interest. 

He'll find out later, much later in fact, that Neji was Sasuke's only demand to Orochimaru. That bringing the Hyūga along was his single request of the Snake Sannin; that his fair treatment, the removal of his seal, and his eventual sterilization were the only things he demanded. Orochimaru had offered power in return for Sasuke's body. Sasuke had promised his enthusiasm in return for Neji's safe passage. 

"He's my only ally," the last Uchiha had said to the garden snake Orochimaru sent to bargain with him. "I want him at my back."

Neji was Sasuke's only condition. 

* * *

Missions are easy. Mostly reconnaissance that they can have their summons do while they spar out of sight. Occasionally, they are asked to assassinate kingpins and what-have-you, destabilize already destabilized towns so that Orochimaru can sweep in and pick his prizes among the latent kekkei genkai, the dominant genes hiding in recessive bodies, the children with impeccable control over one thing or the other. 

Neji uses Tsurugi and she cuts through the men who try to attack him. Swords have minds of their own, and Tsurugi is playful and vicious. Neji has a natural katon affinity, and Tsurugi was made for fūton users in mind. When he uses a katon jutsu followed by a parry with his blade, she sings in his palm, lively and excited for destruction. 

He kills because he is told to. The men and women he dispatches are nothing. They abuse and oppress children; it is easy for him to slit their throats, to gouge out their eyes, to bring back their bodies for Kabuto and Orochimaru to dissect. 

He feels Sasuke's eyes on him every once in a while, while they do battle. He likes knowing that the Uchiha is watching him, has eyes on him. Is curious. Hungry, even. The wants they have after all, are only natural. 

Still, it would upset Orochimaru if anyone pawed at his property. It's a good thing Neji doesn't particularly care for the Sannin. 

* * *

The first time they fuck is on a raiding party on smaller clans in the land of assassins. 

They win their first major battle; combined, the two of them are of a tactical mind that could rival any Nara of any generation. 

They’re drunk with victory in the tent they share together, having left the feasting as the moon hung high in the sky. Neji undresses lazily, dragging on his sleep clothes and placing his katana close to his bed roll. 

Then there are fingers curled into the low ponytail Neji wears, then the hand the fingers belong to rises up, up, until it is gripping the hair close at Neji’s scalp, dragging his head back. 

Sasuke pulls him flush against his front, and Neji can feel the hard line of Sasuke’s cock through their trousers. Sasuke wastes little time, putting his hot mouth on the curve of Neji’s throat and biting a trail of mean bruises down the pale skin he finds there. 

It’s sloppy because they’re each other’s firsts and they don’t know what they like or what they want until they’ve already done it. The first time that night, they have no lube so Sasuke bends Neji over and fucks the tight crease Neji’s thighs make. He holds a fistful or Neji’s dark brown hair all the while.

The second time, Neji dulls his own gag reflex and swallows around Sasuke’s cock, one hand gripping the Uchiha’s ass, one finger spit slicked and pressed in past that fluttering pink ring of muscle. Sasuke clenches hard around Neji’s finger, and screams as he comes. 

The third time, he presses the hard edge of his fingernail against Sasuke's nipple. He watches as Sasuke bucks his hips up almost violently, jerking in Neji's already firm grip. Sasuke spills onto his own stomach, then rears up, shoving Neji onto his back. And years after that first dream, Neji watches as Sasuke laves his tongue over the slit of his cock, Sharingan eyes bright red and violent in the darkness. 

His orgasm leaves him seeing stars. 

* * *

"Soon," Sasuke says one day, long after Neji has pulled out. 

Neji passes a wondering hand over a bruise on his throat, bitten so hard that blood tinges his pale skin. 

"How soon?"

Sasuke rolls over and looks up at him with his dark eyes. 

"Three days," Sasuke says. Then he furrows his brows, looking suddenly almost unhappy. "He hasn't done it to you yet."

Neji raises an eyebrow. 

"Don't insult me," he replies. "I can do it myself."

A vasectomy is easy with chakra. It had been one of the first procedures Neji had taught himself how to do once he had a grasp on medical ninjutsu. 

Sasuke's pensive expression turns a little feral, in a way that Neji can't help but like. 

"Three days," he repeats. "In the morning."

Sasuke reaches up, grabbing at the loose dark brown hair spilling over Neji's shoulders. He wraps it around his two fingers and tugs sharply. Neji smirks and goes down to meet the waiting mouth. 

"I'll start packing," he says against Sasuke's lips.

* * *

Sasuke kills hundreds of Orochimaru's denizens and then he kills Orochimaru. 

Neji goes about freeing the Sannin's various experiments while Sasuke goes about his work. He sends them all on their way, encouraging them to leave or stay at their leisure. 

When Sasuke is finished with his dirty work, Neji is there waiting at the border of Fire Country with a cloak and Sasuke's bag in one hand. 

"You're late," he says. 

Sasuke reaches out, grabs Neji by the white collar of his shirt and presses their mouths together in a kiss that draws blood. Neji leans into it, because this is what his life has become. 

He's not like Kabuto, he realizes then. Kabuto had fled when Orochimaru had perished. He had been loyal to no one. But if Sasuke were to die now, Neji would have to burn the world. 

* * *

He's a Hyūga so of course he's a tracker. He's stolen Kabuto's medical ninjutsu and has spent three years living underground, so of course he's a sensor. It's comically easy to find Uchiha Itachi between the two of them. 

Hoshigaki Kisame smirks at him as Sasuke goes by, off to kill the man that killed his clan. Neji wishes he had that opportunity; the Sandaime was already dead, and Hiashi wasn't directly responsible for his brother's death, even if he did perpetrate the Caged Bird Seal being placed on the foreheads of the branch family.

Then again, Neji thinks wryly, maybe there is someone out there for him to kill. 

Hoshigaki lets out a low whistle as the sound of chirping birds fills their ears. 

"That one yours or mine?" he asks in that gruff voice of his. 

Neji smirks, looking just a little bit upward when a stray bolt of lightning lashes wildly into the sky. 

"Mine," he replies. 

* * *

A garden snake called Tanaka tells him where Sasuke is. Neji runs in a blind panic, Byakugan activated as he goes, desperate, needy. 

He has no one else in this world but Sasuke. He can't afford to lose the only precious person he has left. 

Tanaka leads him across the world, and Neji follows. When they arrive at the strange earth and wooden place, Sasuke is waiting to meet him. 

"You were right," he spits. 

That bitter angry way of his, never lost, but back in full force with the weight of whatever knowledge now hangs on his shoulders. 

"You were right the whole time."

Neji takes one step forward, then another. He reaches out, and takes Sasuke's chin in his hand, tugging his lover's eyes to meet his own. His Sharingan is different now. Almost flower-like. Those red eyes are filled with a righteous fury. 

"They made him do it," Sasuke whispers, voice soft and vengeful. "They _forced_ him."

He thinks of Hyūga Hiashi, feeling safe and content in Konohagakure. He thinks of the Elder's Council. He thinks of the dead Sandaime. Neji smiles, and a plan begins to form in his mind. Who knew how to destroy something better than those who knew how it worked?

"Let's show them what happens when they take from us what's ours," he says, nails digging the barest bit into Sasuke's soft skin. 

Those wild eyes cool just the barest bit; the touch has grounded him, but so has Neji's awful suggestion. 

"Let's burn it to the ground."

**Author's Note:**

> i really don't know how this happened except that it did. it's been sitting in my drafts for months and i finally just got it over with.
> 
> comments are food for starving artists xx thank you for reading!


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